San Francisco 49ers: Why trading Richard Sherman doesn’t make sense

There has been some talk that the San Francisco 49ers should trade Richard Sherman before the NFL trade deadline. Here’s why the Niners shouldn’t do that.

Normally, I would be all for trading a good aging player like San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman to help the franchise’s rebuild.

I play Madden Franchise Mode a lot, and I always rebuild bad teams to make them great. What I do is trade almost every player over 26 years old for NFL Draft picks or promising young players on other teams. Because, even if it’s just Madden, that is what rebuilding a team is all about. Just look at what head coach Jon Gruden is doing with the Oakland Raiders. He is going to have five first-round picks in the next two years to use on five impact players that he likes for his team.

There is a complete rebuild going on in Oakland/Las Vegas, and in my (unpopular) opinion, coach Gruden is doing it right.

The 49ers were looking like contenders heading into the season, but the truth is that this team is still in year two of a complete rebuild. There are noticeably many holes on this team that the front office will need to fill in the offseason. I hate to say it, but realistically, this team is still a couple years away from winning a championship unless the front office hits on all their draft picks this year.

Niner Noise site editor Peter Panacy summed it up pretty well with this tweet:

So the obvious thing to do would be to trade the 30-year-old Sherman for a young player or draft picks, right?

Not so fast.

Sherman is a crucial part of this rebuild. The defensive backfield is, for lack of a better word, straight garbage right now. Free safety Adrian Colbert, who heavily regressed this season, is on injured reserve, cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon is playing below expectations and the backups aren’t playing well either. I see Sherman as not only a player, but an extra defensive backs coach as well. He is the person in this unit who is going to develop all of these young players to help this team’s future.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he is allowing the lowest passer rating in the entire league (39.6, which is the same passer rating as a quarterback throwing the ball straight into the ground every time).

Sherman is the heart and soul of this team. Even on the sidelines, he is always aware of what is going on in the game. At the 49ers Chargers game this year (where Sherman’s brother was actually sitting in the row in front of me), there was a controversial call on the field. Sherman, who was inactive in the game, came storming onto the field and started screaming at the refs to defend his teammate.

When’s the last time you saw a player in street clothes do that?

Even though he probably regrets signing with the 49ers in 2018, Sherman is a player to keep. He is too important to sell unless a team offers a first-round pick for him.

Even if the 49ers somehow manage to get a first rounder out of Sherman, it’ll be a big hit to the morale for the team. The locker room would lose their leader, and no 49ers fan should want that to happen.